This invention relates to improvements in stringed musical instruments and, more particularly, to a new and improved bridge support for an electric stringed instrument, such as an electric bass.
Electric bass-violin style stringed instruments are sometimes designed to simulate the sound of conventional acoustic instruments. Such sound simulation, however, has not been readily achieved. Nevertheless, some professional musicians, who otherwise utilize and prefer to use an acoustic instrument, for example, an acoustic bass, will resort to the use of an electric bass due to the transportation difficulties involved in transporting a much larger acoustic bass, for example, in the restricted space of an airplane or automobile.
In attempting to simulate the sound of an acoustic instrument, it is important that the musician be able to adjust the strings to obtain the proper feel and tonal quality. The strings extend across a bridge which is supported on the body of the bass. The bridge maintains the spacing between the strings and, in some constructions, is moveable and adjustable to vary the elevation and tension of the strings. The bridge is typically provided with support legs. Elevation adjustment may be effected by mechanical adjusters, which engage each support leg and the body of the bass, so as to enable adjustment of the strings above the face of the body.
In the acoustic bass, the bridge moves by virtue of the flex of the body. Such movement affects the tonal quality and, as well, the feel of the strings. The typical vertical electric bass, however, is provided with a solid, i.e., filled, body having a much narrower cross-section and smaller volume than an acoustic bass. Consequently, the electric bass body is relativley rigid so that the bridge does not move in the same way and the feel of the strings and sound generated does not satisfactorily simulate an acoustic bass.